What Tricks Do You Use to Remember to Shut Lights Off?

Our apartment has 10 separate four-walled rooms, if you count closets and bathrooms. Between those 10 rooms, we have 14 separate overhead light fixtures, controlled by 14 separate light switches. Guess how many of those lights were switched on last night when we decided to head to bed? Thirteen. Unacceptable, I know.

My partner and I aren't the best about remembering to shut lights off, and our apartment's utility bill shows that. It's not that we don't care about it—conserving global energy and saving money on our bills are both at the top of our priorities—but we're just not good at it. Someone gets up to use the bathroom, turns on the hallway light, then the bathroom light, and then just walks right out. Terrible, right?

We need to reform our at-home energy habits, and I'm sure we're not alone. To help all of us energy hogs get better about shutting lights off, we want to hear your best tricks for remembering not to leave the lights on. If it worked for you, your partner or your 8-year-old kid, it might just work for me.

Do you reward yourself for remembering the lights? Play a game with your flatmates to keep lights off? Or maybe you hang something by the switch to remind you of all the cash you could be saving? If you have a strategy for saving energy, we want (and need!) to hear about it. Tell us in the comments!